Hey everyone!

It’s been a long while since the last update, and while I can fault that to life things going on, the plain truth is I could’ve delivered some small updates every now and then.

Everyone has their own lives to manage, but I’m especially awful at maintaining correspondence under stress. Communication has always been my greatest shortcoming… I’m slowly taking responsibility and learning to change those habits.

For now, I’d like to talk about the present, then, and beyond.

Demo Status?

If I were some visitor with a passing interest in these SOFIA, then I’d want to know about the game first and foremost. There’s good news and “meh” news regarding the game’s progress:

The Good News – We made a ~10 minute demo with 20 more minutes in production

This demo is my attempt at capturing the type of atmosphere, more specifically the overall feeling I want to convey throughout the game. I learned a lot in this build’s assembly.

There’s something simultaneously frustrating (at some points maddening) and fulfilling about tweaking and tinkering little bits of code to draw out specific kinds of expression. Especially for a slice-of-life story, where those little subtleties garner more attention… And even more so in this visual novel style format. It feels similar to illustration in a way, except efficiency probably has a higher emphasis overall.

I honestly feel way too underqualified to tackle this stuff!

But thankfully, there are tons of resources and references we can use to stumble the way through.

I think the best kinds of stories are those that can arouse a person’s mind to the creator’s perspective and brings out its messages without any shame. To put it simply, good stories have good themes that impart timeless lessons. If this niche little thing can create that impression, I’ll be wholly content…

To hope so is saccharine – to expect so is at worst, arrogance – so I’ll try not to tunnel into that ambition too much.
The game’s gotta be good, above all.

The second half of this build are mostly mapped out. What’s left is to refine the writing, create the necessary assets, and make it into a nice little package. This is the next set of tasks.

(It feels weird to constantly mention my insecurities/vulnerabilities, but perhaps that’s just my way of trying to assume responsibility. Like a constant reminder that it won’t be easy, but I can pave the roads forward.)

The “Meh” News – It won’t be released until that remaining 20 minutes is complete, which will take a while…

This part boils down to being busy with life things, so I won’t delve into it very much. Essentially, man-child has to become an adult.

There’s a lot of adulting that needs to be taken care of before I can continue working on SOFIA which is what will use most of time in the forthcoming months. I have no ETA on when I can give my full attention to the remaining demo, but it would be great if it’s before 2022 passing.

The Team – “Farewell”

Due to the culmination of various factors (much of it harping back to life things), I decided to dissolve the team’s group activities for good.

I’ve already shared the struggles observed throughout our time together, so again, I won’t touch on much.

(I hope) There are no hard feelings involved. Circumstances simply changed and I couldn’t keep up with the bare minimum for a leader for our activities.

Our previous writing system was very flawed… I’m still a bit surprised no one called me out on it – especially when I grieved about my inexperience. I suppose it’s a mistake I had to make some time.

Going forward, I can assure that I won’t be alone in development. We aren’t exactly parting ways, by the way! I just want to be serious with managing time commitments by working on a commission basis and less overall vagueness.

Sneak Peaks + Voice Acting?

There remains foundational aspects of the game that I haven’t formally decided on. There will be changes that you can expect in further, polished builds.

I’ll try to explain some of the images and the thought processes behind them, if needed.

This sort of cinematic and focused screen space is something I’m mulling over for the game – my main inspiration being Narcissu.

Among its pros, I believe this style of presentation could better invite readers to focus on the details of the art. Similar to manga, what you need to see is clearly defined between the text (speech bubbles) and artwork (panels). A lot of time and effort is saved in the art side. If needed, the black bars could simply be expanded to reveal more vast scenes. Overall, a “less is more” approach for SOFIA.

In a way, it’d allow for more varied art expressions. Maybe we could try a pseudo NVL style and have the black borders display vertically? Or something thematic where depending on the character’s current mental state, there’s a more “tunnel” vision versus an open-minded, receptive view. It sounds cool, but I wonder if the effort would be worth it…

Then, among its cons, sound design and voice acting seem imperative to this type of experience. I feel like the lack of eye-candy and almost solemnity of this style needs to be accommodated. That’s something I’m not at all ready for with our current music/sound libraries and zero voice casting experience.

Also, allowing everyone’s voice to rest in the reader’s imagination would be my ideal. However, I’ve never been against the inclusion of voice acting. I already have a list of VA’s that I’m interested in on my Twitter lists.

This is a big tangent where I’ll briefly list how I imagine our main heroines’ voices… I’ll avoid mentioning any specific voice actors/seiyuu for now. If this information ever transitions into a casting call, I think I’d prefer an originally developed, natural interpretation of everyone’s voices over copying the reference. If it helps, I’ll have that on the backburner.

• Aria

“Soft-spoken and terse—she has a voice with the clarity of pure water, but rarely uses it, so it pours out like dew drops. This is not due to timidness or even sleepiness like many would believe. Rather, a lackadaisical, deliberate inflection she’s cultivated for “efficient” conversations. Although that’s what she wants to believe, it can end up with others struggling to connect the dots if they’re not attentive.”

• Ninian

“Ninian has a very direct and prompt style of speaking. She prefers not to dawdle over her words and delivers quick and honest replies with an effortless confidence. At first people would recognize it as her being “blunt” but slowly changed their understanding to it being more “professional”. Her matter-of-fact demeanor makes it difficult to carry casual conversation.”

• Amelie

“Genki, energetic, bubbly, loud, peppy – just about half of the words that people use to describe Amelie’s voice. All her greetings are bright and cheery with her favorite phrase being “Your ‘Mel’ is here~!” She adores using a flurry of adjectives to express her excitement. At times she can be overbearing, but she’s quick to catch on to moods and tone herself down.

• Runa

“Matching her soothing demeanor is a floating, comforting style of speech… At times it becomes too flowery to understand, but she admittedly does so for her own entertainment. Her speech is also noted to be “proper” by common standards, similar to an attendant or nurse. It’s rare for her to fumble on words, but she’ll take the time to deliberate on the right words and phrases when needed – this has the effect of tensing up the mood for how long it takes, however. Likes using quotes from the literature she’s consumed.”

Back to teaser shots…

Simple-ish artwork that denote the beginning of a new arc.
I think it’d just be nice for the reader to have a sense of their progression with these. It can give them a rough idea of how long arcs are, a teaser for what to look forward to in relation to whatever the illustration is, as well as a “security” in their time allotment.

An ending card where something changes from the original chapter card could be a cool accent. Like maybe for this sample, the sprout grows stronger and a bunch of redder maple leaves surround its base. A tangible passing of time.

This goes back to my first ramble about screen space.

Why do I have the ADV text box here? I don’t really know myself. There’s a feeling that I can still use it. I’ve been told having June as a sprite would be strange, as she’s the MC.

Instead, she can have the ADV box all to herself? With a little box for her expressions similar to the “Tales of” skits. The box itself can serve as a separation between narration, active, and passive thoughts. Technically all of these can fall under narration?

I think it’d be cool to make the distinction though. Very similarly to Final Fantasy X, when Tidus goes into his thoughts. There’s his narration talking about the turn of events replaying it in his head, his “in-scene” inner monologue and thoughts, then the “in-game” inner thoughts usually made up through text solely.

I’m explaining it in a very convoluted way, hah. Essentially, I want three Junes: narrator, in-action June, and an ‘observer’ diary-writing June who acts like a commentator(?) Like an angel and devil persona on each shoulder?

I’m just making it more complicated than it is, but it feels necessary for how I want to tell this story.

I hope I can find a way to freely manipulate the GUI for my own experiments. I feel the most limited by programming right now. At the very least, I can mock up things in my painting program, but I won’t be able to really grasp it feels to play.

That’s all folks

A lot of this really is just self-indulgence. I love to dream big and flaunt my idealism and ambition, but I’ve always been slow at taking the first steps. To continue development, I gotta see things objectively.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my rambling.

If you came from Twitter, I hope you guys like the art I shared! Until next time~